CrunchPad Tablet Delayed by High Production Costs

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TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s first dive into the gadget business may end up badly after his budget tablet, the CrunchPad has been hit by higher-than-expected costs and delayed. The project which started as a “dead simple” web tablet was initially supposed to cost close to $200, but after seeing a prototype in action Arrington has annoucned that a sub-$300 price-point would be more feasible. Where here we are now, with analysts in Sillicon Valley feating the the Crunchpad may have found itself in front of a dead end.

Either delayed, held until the whole economy picks up or until it’s ready to launch with Google’s Chrome OS, Michael Arrington has failed to comment the new rumors. As a matter of fact, half a year ago Arrington has announced that the CrunchPad would be unveiled at an event (in either July or August) that never took place. Again, he failed to provide an update.

As much as we’d like to get our fingers playing with a Intel Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, built-in Wi-Fi and possibly 3G, the Crunchpad may not be the dream device Michael Arrington has envisioned. At least not price wise.

Kudos to Arrington for the amazing job he’s done on TechCrunch, but the gadgets business is a bit more complex. At least he tried!!!